Spring assembly for upholstery



June 30, 1925.

L. A. SUEKOFF SPRING ASSEMBLY FOR UPHOLSTERY Filed April 9, 1925 5 Sheet-Sheet 1 E Iwuf (2 l @2125 (5/) W (3 June 3 L. A. SUEKOFF SPRING ASSEMBLY FOR UPHOLSTERY Filed April 9, 1925 3 SheetsSheet 2 June 30, 1925.

1.. A. SUEKOFF SPRING ASSEMBLY FOR UPHOLSTERY Filed April 9, 1925 s Sheets-Sheet 5' Patented June 30,1925.

UNITED STATESPATENT OFFICE.

LOUIS A. SUEKOFF, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR OF ONE-HALF LTO FRED A.

' NACHMAN, OF'CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

SPRING ASSEMBLY FOR UPHOLSTERY.

Application filed. April 9, 1925. Serial No. 21,816.

' T all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, LOUIS A. SUEKOFF,

a citizen of the United States, residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Spring Assemblies for Upholstery; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

This invention relates to 'seat cushions particularly adapted for vehicles and has for its main object to provide a cushion having a substantially rigid base upon which the springs are supported, and a fabric superstructure presenting cells or pockets in which the springs are housed in closely grouped relation but out of contact with each other.

Other objects of the invention will be hereinafter explained. The invention may be variously embodied with respect to variations in details'of construction as hereinafter described and as fully illustrated in the accompanying drawings wherein:

Fig. 1 is a perspective view, partly in section, of a cushion-constructed in accordance with the invention. I

Fig. 2 is a fragmentary bottom plan vie-w of the same, partly in section.

Fig.3 is a fragmentary detail perspective section of the upper front corner of the cushion.

Fig. 4 is a fragmentary perspective view illustrating the preferred manner of forming or crimping frame wires at points of intersection.

Figs. 5 and 6 are vertical sections on the lines, 5.') and 66, respectively, of Fig. 2.

Fig. 7 is a vertical longitudinal section of a cushion presenting an inclined supporting or top surface.

Fig. 8 is a plan view of the piece of fabric forming the top wall of the cushion.

Fig. 9 is a fragmentary perspective view of the structure of Figs. 1 and 2.

Fig. 10 is a similar view illustrating a slight variation from the embodiment of Fig. 9..

Fig. 11 is a similar perspective view showing a further variation from the structure illustrated in Figs. 9 and 10.

The structur l variations illustrated in the drawings are hardly of a nature which are usually designated as modifications in patent specifications but merely selective substitutes which do not materially difier from each other in function and results, as

will be more fully understood from the folllowing description.

The fabric superstructure of the present invention is preferably identical or substantially identical with that illustrated in Letters Patent No. 1,411,227, granted to me .on- March 28, 1922, with the bottom fabric wall of the latter omitted and a substantially rigid wire frame substituted therefor. The superstructure of the present invention is also intended and adapted for insertion of springs into the pockets by means of the tool illustrated in Letters Patent No. 1,352,157, granted to me on September 7, 1920.

The structure of the present invention is preferably built up as follows A piece 1 of suitable. fabric, such as burlap, is cut as illustrated in Fig. 8 so as to provide free edge portions or flanges 2 along three edges thereof and a relatively long flap 3 along the front edge thereof, said flaps 2 being disposed outwardly of the lines of stitching 4 for securing the side and rear walls 5 and 6, respectively, to the said top wall- 1. A portion of said stitched to constitute a relatively wide hem 7 at the upper front corner of the completed structure while the balance or free end portion of said flap 3 constitutes the front wall of the cushion. The partition walls or strips 8 and 9 of similar fabric are stitched to the top wall 1- by means of the lines of stitching 10 and 11, respectively.

The several partition strips 8 may, as shown in Fig. 11 extend continuously from sidewall to side wall or from front to rear wall of the structure or may be composed of a series of narrow strips of fabric similarly to the partition strips 9, the last-mentioned formbeing shown in Figs. 1 to 10 for greater convenience of illustration of the other features of construction, it being instantly obvious that the substitution of the continuous for the discontinuous partition walls, or vice versa, cannot materially affect the merits of the completed structure, the sole advantage of the continuous strips over the discontinuous residing in greater top walll, thus cheapening the labor cost but consuming slightly more fabric to off set such savin 'Before stitc ing the partition elements 8 and 9 to the cover 1,, the free'edgeportions of said partition elements are stitched to provide hems 12 and 13, respectively.

After the side and rear walls and partition elements have been stitched to the top wall 1 a border wire 14 of proper dimensions is laid upon the top wall and the flaps or flanges 2 and hem 7 are folded over uponthe same and the free edges thereof handi stitched or .basted to the top wall. The

be stitched tothe cover 1 before. the side and rear walls are stitched thereto'in order to permit the bottom border wire 16 to be machine-stitched into hems of said side and rear walls and the latter thereafter machine-stitched to the cover 1.- The front wall or the rear or a side Wall must be left unattached to the border wire 16 until after insertion of springs 17 into the pockets and then hand stitched or otherwise suitably secured to the said border wire 16. i

The most distinctivefeature of the present invention, defined either. in terms of method or structure,- lies in building up the base at the same time that the latter is interlocked with the superstructure.

Thus, after the border wire 16 is associated with three vertical walls of the superstructure and is thus enclosed or housed on three sides by the fabric, cross-wires 18 are inserted through the fabric walls of the hem enclosing one side of said border Wire 16 and are then passed successively through the hems of all partition elements extending arallel with each other either longitudina 1y or laterally of the structure. If one set of'said artition elements consists of continuous lhs in Fig. 11) instead of discontinuous strips, then the cross-wires are preferably first inserted into and through the hems of the latter and through the opposite fabric outer wall to rest upon the border wire 16. Both ends of these wires are then looped downwardly about the hem belowthe border wire as shown at 19 in Fig. 7. These wires 18 are preferably crimped at regular intervals corresponding to the diameters of the spring pockets, the crimps 20 being preferably, but not necessarily, somewhat similar in shape to the half the diameter of thewlre.

capital letter W or M but in maximum depth no greater than approximately one- Before forming the loops 19, the wires 18 must be positioned and maintained with the crimps 20 properly positioned to present the mid-recess to receive the preferably oppositely crimped cross-wires 21, which present what may be termed simple or V-shaped crimps 22 as shown in Fig. 4.

After the cross-wires 18 have been inserted and secured by the loops 19, thecrosswires 21 are inserted successively through the hems of the remaining artition elements and similarly positioned with respect to the recesses of the crimps 22 being opposed to those of the crimps 20 and then secured to border wire by means of the loops 23.

I now have a structure which comprises a foraminous, relatively rigid base associated with a fabric cell structure, the cells or ockets of which are open at their lower and; and which present substantiall inflexible mouths ofsomewhat smaller dimension or area than the balance of said pockets. This structure, may as above pointed out, include the top border wire or may be devoid thereof.

The next step in construction will depend uponwhether additional continuous cross-wires 24, such as are shown in Figs.

9 and 11, are used or whether the discontinuous cross-wires 25 shown in Fig. 10 arev to be employed.

Thesprings 17 are of a base diameter equal to or sli htly in excess of the diam-Q eters of the cells or pockets inwardly of the mouths thereof so as to very snugly fit said pockets and be of as much larger diameter than the mouths of the pockets as possible Without causing the spring in one pocket to .be overlapped by or, vice versa, overlap springs in contiguous or surrounding pockets. It will be obvious that without other retaining means than the cross-wires inserted through the hems of the partition elements, and, in part the border wire 16, there isa possibility of the bases of the springs 17 springing past one of said wires and, by subsequent contraction of the base coil by load on the cushion, spring in whole or in part from the pocket. Hence, eitherof the two types of retaining means referred to will be, preferably, employed without limitation however, as to substitution of any other suitable means adapted to the purpose.

Assuming that the discontinuous type 25 of Fig. 10 is preferred, then the next step in assembly of the structure will consist in introducing the springs 17 into the cells or pockets either in the manner shown and described in said Letters Patent No. 1.352.157

the projection of the a of said hooks to permit the other prong to be similarly passed through the hem associated with the thus sprung wire, this being accomplished by merely releasing the lat ter. Each of said prongs passes over the base-coil of the spring or sprin s associated with the wires now enga e and held against spreading by the eement and the free ends of said prongs may then be readily bent down by means of a suitable tool to convert the hook into a loop embracing the cross-Wire 18 or 21 or border Y wire 16, as the case may be, and the base coil or coils of the spring or springs 17 finding support on said several wires 18, 21 and/or 16. Thus the possibility of said base-coils of the springs becoming disposed out of position for support by said lastmentioned wires is obviated and, furthermore, after all of said elements 25 have been mounted in place, all of the cross and border wires are so firmly anchored with respect to each other as to obviatemovement thereof toward or from each other. As two of said elements 25 span or bridge the mouth of each pocket so that their points of intersection are disposed substantially centrally of the mouth of the pocket, each spring is anchored at four points. The elements 25 are held in relative position as aforesaid by the fabric and also by the curvature of the base-coils of said springs.

If, in place of the elements 25, the additional cross or reinforcing and spring supporting cross-wires 24 are tobe used, then, preferably, they are mounted in place before the springs 17 are inserted into the pockets or cells. The said wires 24 are, preferably, of smaller gauge than the wires 16, 18 and 21 and may be straight throughout as shown in Fig. 11 or'crimped as'shown in Figs. 1 and 3, the straight wires being preferred. the hems of the outer walls and partition elements immediately above the upper surfaces of said wires 16, 18 and 21 for support by the same and the ends of said Wires 24 are looped about the wire 16 as shown at 27. Followin the insertion of all wires 24, the springs 1% are inserted as aforesaid.

These are projected through lVhile additional anchoring has not been found necessary, it may be provided in the shape of wire staples28 projected diagonally over the points of intersection of the wires 24 with the wires 18 and 21 and the free ends of said staples then bent into meeting. or overlapping position to form loops which embrace said wires and the base-coils of the springs 17 associated therewith. 1 p

, The foregoing operations produce the relatively rigid foraminous base andspringfilled fabric superstructure, which, if still devoid of the top border wire, may not be supplied with the latter and with the fiat strip of metal or other material in the hem 7.

The cushions of vehicles are necessarily subjected to greater action and wear than those of household furniture and, therefore, it is probablethat the fabrics enclosing the springs, especially at the topsof the latter, will wear out or be cut through by the wire of the springs in a much shorter time than in'the case of household furniture cushions. This'might cause the tops of the springs to become badly displaced and overlapped and to obviate. this, staples 28 are similarly inserted to embrace the top coils of contiguous springs and then contracted into loops as aforesaid, a very simple tool for this purpose having been designed andused. These loops 28 will serve to retain the springs in proper relative position after the artition fabric separatingthe springs has een worn through the cover fabric being less likely to suffer such wear.

It will be understood, of course, that the completed structure will constitute merely the core of a finished upholstered product as is well known to those skilled in the art, the padding and covering necessary to produce the finished article being omitted from illustration, v

The convex surfaces of the crimps 2'2 and those of the loops about the border wire 16, are disposed below the level of the fabric of the hems of'said' partition elements housing the cross-wires 18 and 21 in whole or in part so that when the cushion is placed upon a hard level surface, said surfacestor points constitute the supports for the Cashion and eliminate all wear onthe lowest portions of said hems.

While the invention is here illustrated in its preferred embodiments, it will be understood, of course, that variations in details of relatively intersect-ing wires interlaced with the walls of the pockets.

-2. A spring assembly including a box-like fabric superstructure equipped with relatively laterally and longitudinally arranged fabric partition walls dividing the same into cells adapted to receive and retainv coiled springs in spaced relation to each other, and

a skeleton-base forsaid superstructure including setsof relatively intersecting spacing elements disposed relatively to each other and to the peripheral and partition walls of said superstructure in a predetermined relation and secured respectively to said several walls for maintaining the latter in spaced relation to each other.

3. A cushion including a substantially rigid base having a plurality of sets of s )aced portions, and a normally distended, (epressible, flexible superstructure having artition walls extending longitudinally and aterally thereof forming a series of independent pockets having the lower ends of the walls thereof regularly spaced and connected to correspondingly spaced portions of the base, and a cushioning element housed in each of said pockets. I

4. A spring assembly including a box-like fabric superstructure equipped with partition wallsdividing the same into cells each adapted to contain a coiled spring, and a substantially rigid skeleton base substantially coincident in contour and size with the bottom of said superstructure and in- .cluding border and relatively intersecting intermediate wires disposed substantially coincidentally with and secured to all ofthe 'wallsof all of said cells for retaining the same in spaced relation to each other.

5. A spring assembly including a box-like fabric superstructure equipped with respectively laterally. and longitudinally arranged fabric partition walls dividing the same into cells adapted to receive and retain coiled springs in spaced relation to each other, and a skeleton base for said superstructure including sets of relatively intersecting spacing elements disposed relatively to each other-in a predetermined relation and to the peripheral and partition walls of said super and open at their other ends, a. base structure for said superstructure including a borderwire frame secured to the lower edges of the side and end walls, and a plurality of inter- .secting sets of parallel wires engaged at their ends with the border wire and between their ends with the lower edges of the partition pockets closed at one end by the top wall-v and open 'at their other ends, said side, end, and partition walls secured atone end to said top wall and said partition walls provided at their other ends with hems, and a base structure comprising'a border frameelement and a plurality of intersecting sets of frame elements extending through the said hems and secured at their ends to the border frame elements.

8. A cushion including a superstructure comprising a flexible fabric top, end, side and partition walls, the said several walls arranged and secured relatively to each other to form pockets closed at one end by the top wall and open at their other ends, one set of said partition walls being continuous throughout the length of said structure, said partition walls provided at their other ends with loops, a base structure com prising a border frame element and a plurality of intersecting sets of intermediate frame elements extending through the said loops and secured at their ends to the border frame element, springs in said pockets, said sets of frame elements serving to provide a substantiall inflexible months for said pockets, an spring-supporting elements associated. with said last-named frame elements pockets.

9. A cushion includin a superstructure comprising a flexible fa ric top, end, side and partition walls, the said several walls arranged relatively to each other to form pockets closed at one end by the top wall and open at their otherv ends, said side, end and partition walls provided at their other ends with hems, a basestructure comprising a borderfra'me element and a plurality of intersecting sets of frame elements extending through the said hems and secured at their ends to the border frame'element, springs of greater length than said pockets retained in the latter, said sets of frame elements serving to provide substantially inflexible mouths for said pockets and reinforcing elements extending through said partition walls'forsupport by said intersecting frame elements and spanning the mouths of said pockets.

10. A seat cushion comprising a fabric top wall and fabric end, side and partition walls each secured at one end to the top wall and relatively arranged to present pockets open at one end, the free end portions of the partition walls bordering said pockets proand spanningthe-mouths of. said 0 i vided with hems, a base-structure including a border element secured to the lower edges of the side and end walls, frame elements disposed in intersecting relation to each other and the border element and extending walls each secured at one end to the top wall and relatively arranged to present pockets open at one end, the portions of the partition walls bordering said pockets provided with hems, a base-structure including a border element secured to the lower edges of the side and end walls, intersecting frame elements extending through the hems of the partition walls and providing substantially inflexible walls bordering the open ends of said pockets, springs disposed in the latter, and reinforcing members assoclated with said springs and said frame elements and spanning the mouths of, said pockets, said frame elements including bends at the points of intersection'extending below the plane of the fabric for preventing wear on the latter.

12. A cushion including a fabric top wall, a pair of side and a pair of end walls, one of these latter and said top wall having a hem common thereto and extending therefrom, a fiat strip of a flexible material "mounted in said hem, the other of said end and the said side walls stitched to said top wall by a line of stitching disposed relatively to a free edge to provide a flange or flap adapted to be folded over upon the top wall, and a border wire for the latter, said flange and said strip containing hem folded over the said border wire and stitched to the top wall Y for housing said wire.

13. A seat-cushion including a fabric top wall, side, end and partition walls secured to the top wall, some of said partition Walls being continuous through the length of the structure and others thereof extending transversely of said continuous partition wallsand consisting of narrow strips of fabric, said partition walls arranged relatively to each other and said side and end walls to provide pockets open at one end, the portions of the partition walls bordering the mouths of said pockets being provided with hems, a base-frame including a border wire secured to the lower edges of the side and end walls, and intersecting sets of wires se-.

cured at their ends to said border wire and extending through said hems, the set of wires extending through the hems of the narrow strip partition walls presenting bends passing below the hems of the continuous partition walls to thereby provide bare portions for supporting the cushion upon a surface out of contact-with the fab ric, and springs disposed in said pockets.

14. A seat-cushion including a fabric top Wall, side, end and partition walls secured to the top wall, some of said partition walls being continuous through the length of the structure and others thereof extending transversely of said continuous partition walls consisting of narrow strips of fabric, said partition walls arranged relatively to each other and said side and end Walls to provide pockets open at one end, the portions of the partition walls bordering the mouths of. said pockets being provided with hems, a base-frame including a border wire secured to the lower ends'of the side and end walls, intersecting sets of wires secured at-their ends to said border wire and extending through said hems, the set of wires extending through the hems of the narrow strip partition walls presenting bends passing below the hems of the continuous partition walls to thereby provide bare portions posed in said pockets,'and reinforclng wires associated with said wires in said hems and passing through said hems and spanning the mouths of said pockets.

15. A spring assembly including a fabric superstructure equipped with partition walls dividing the same into a plurality of cells each adapted to contain a coiled spring, and a skeleton wire base having component relatively intersecting sets of wires interlaced at points between their ends with .fabric portions of said superstructure for permanently associating said base with the latter.

16. A spring assembly comprising .a fabric superstructure including top, end, side and sets of partition walls on intersecting planes, the latter secured along one edge to the top wall and conjointly with the side and end walls dividing the structure into pockets or cells open at their lower ends and each adapted to receive a coiled spring, and a substantially rigid base including a border-wire frame secured to the lower edge portions of the side and end walls and a bottom wire frame work-secured at its ends to the border-wire frame and comprising wire portions secured to the wire portions. 

